Head Coach Keri Meyer and other officials from Monroe College in New York City will be coming to the UK on the weekend of 18-19 May to look at young players in the Great Britain Fastpitch League (GBFL) and to make a presentation to players and parents about the school.
The GBFL will have its second day of play at Richings Park Sports Club in Iver on Saturday 18 May after opening the season on Sunday, 5 May. A team made up of GB Under-19 Women and Men will start out in Division 1 in the GBFL and the GB Under-16 Girls' Team will play in Division 2 – although there will be promotion and relegation between the two senior divisions after each day's play.
An Under-14 League will also run alongside the two senior divisions, and the Monroe College group will be happy to talk to those players and parents as well.
Monroe College
Monroe College is a four-year liberal arts city university with branches in the Bronx in New York City and in nearby New Rochelle. Students from 63 different countries currently study there, and the college has always sought to recruit foreign students to both its academic and athletic programmes. Its 13 different sports teams won eight conference titles last year.
Monroe College officials contacted the GB Softball programme earlier this year, and the visit was arranged through GB Softball Programmes Director Stan Doney.
Although Monroe College offers a four-year academic curriculum, its women's softball team, a relatively recent programme, plays at a two-year junior college level. So players who complete their two-year eligibility at Monroe and wish to continue playing can transfer to a four-year college after their sophomore year.
This year's Monroe Mustangs Softball Team fell just short of winning their conference championship.
GB support
The GB Softball programme encourages young British-based players to play college softball in the United States if that is a decision that makes sense for the player and her family, as the coaching and experience that can be gained in US college softball will give players a much better chance of making an impact in international softball for the GB Women's Team.
So far, five British-based players have taken this step, pioneered by GB outfielder Laura Thompson, who played for two years at Vernon Community College in Texas and then transferred to Eastern New Mexico University, where she won all-Conference honours. Laura has been a fixture in the GB Women's Team since 2003.
Morgan Parkerson played for four years at Western Washington University while her sister Ali is currently playing at Western Oregon University. Steph Pearce also started at Vernon College in Texas, then transferred to the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut, where she has just finished a successful two years as the team's starting catcher. And Susie Hall, a recent graduate from the GB Under-19 Team, has just finished her first season at Frank Phillips Community College in Texas.
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Monroe Head Coach
The delegation coming to the UK from Monroe College will include Softball Head Coach Keri Meyer, who has just finished her first season in charge of the programme after an All-American playing career at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh, and then served as an Assistant Coach at Robert Morris and Farleigh Dickinson University, both NCAA Division 1 programmes.
As a player, Keri set a Robert Morris record by batting .417 for the season and won the NCAA Division 1 “Toughest to Strike Out” award, striking out only once during the entire season. Keri received her Masters of Administrative Science degree from Farleigh Dickerson in 2009.